Rockport Class Battlecruiser
The Rockport Class Battlecruiser, known as the True Battlecruiser by the crews who manned them, is the final class of battlecruiser commissioned by the Democratic Republic Navy, officially designated a Large Cruiser. The class is named after the city of Rockport, Tarakia. It is interesting to note that DRS Rockport (CB-1) was converted to a Guided Missile Gun Cruiser(CBG) in the 60's and was later retrofitted to her standard fit in 1995. Service History DRS Rockport was officially commissioned on August 5, 1949 and her sister ship DRS Olympic City (CB-2) was commissioned a month later. They were designed to be cruiser killers, but with no cruisers to kill there roll was switched. Similar to the Xeres Class Battleships, their speed made them useful for short bombardment ships and fast carrier escorts. In the following year, two more Battlecruisers were commissioned. DRS Tri-City (CB-4) and then later as (CBG-4) and DRS Bayview (CB-5), during this time Rockport was modified to become a Command Ship and received the designation CBC-1(Cruiser, Battle, Command). Rockport and Tri-City both started to fulfill their original role as Cruiser Killers during the mid 50's when they made deployments with the DR 1st Fleet, they encountered hostile Heavy and Light Cruisers, with these two threats positioning themselves between the DR 1st Fleet and their objective, both Rockport and Tri-City began to fire their 305mm Naval Guns at the cruisers, it was interesting to note that these hostile cruisers had similar resemblance to the Admiral Hipper Class and Deutschland Class Cruisers used by the Kriegsmarine during the 40's. The Light Cruisers that were present, were very similar to the Leipzig Class Cruisers. With both sides returning fire for several hours, Rockport was eventually damaged by a shot that hit Turret #1 and crews were forced to fight the magazine fire that ensued after the hit Tri-City and several Roseburg Class Heavy Cruisers moved into a covering position to give Rockport the support she needed. DRS Roseburg (CA-68) began to help the crews of Rockport fight the fire in Turret #1 by sending over more men and more hoses. Designations Carried Throughout there Career, several of the cruisers received re-designations for different roles within their hull classification. *'CB': Cruiser, Battle (or) Cruiser, Large *'CBC': Cruiser, Battle, Command *'CBG': Cruiser, Battle, Guided Missile *'CBCG': Cruiser, Battle, Command, Guided Missile Ships in Class Subclass In 1983, the Prime Minster of Herzgovnia reached out to the Democratic Republic of Tarakia for a contract of 5 new built gun cruisers based off the Rockport Class. Although the DRN refused to allow Herzgovnia to get a cruiser exactly like the Rockport Class, a compromise was made. The new gun cruiser for Herzgovnia was a modified Rockport Class lacking turret number 3, that was replaced with a missile magazine for use with the domestic missile that Herzgovnia had developed, among other things, the final look was not too different but was definitely modified. The first cruiser came into service in 1986 as the HRS Grozi, lead ship of the Grozi Class. Category:Tarakia Category:Tarakian Ship